Self-closing cabinet doors



June 25, 1968 JONES ET AL SELF-CLOSING CABINET DOORS 3 Sheetg-Sheet 1Filed Oct. 28, 1966 FIG. 1

Hill

IN VE N TOPS Harold 5. Jones Theodore Z Zmuaa /I June 25, 1968 JONES ETAL SELF-CLOSING CABINET DOORS June 25, 1968 B. JONES ET AL SELF-CLOSINGCABINET DOORS FIG; 6

3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Oct. 28, 1966 United States Patent 3,389,943SELF-CLOSING CABINET DOORS Haroid B. Jones, Lombard, and Theodore E.Zmuda,

Chicago, Ill., assignors to Leitner Equipment Company, a corporation ofIllinois Filed Oct. 28, 1966, Ser. No. 590,238 1 Claim. (Cl. 312-138)ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This specification discloses a pair of doorsslidably mounted on longitudinally inclined tracks removably secured tothe bottom of a cabinet adjacent the door opening, whereby gravitycauses each door to slide downwardly to provide a positive closingaction. The removability of the bottom tracks facilitates cleaning ofthe cabinet.

This invention relates to a closure means for a cabinet, and isparticularly concerned with self-closing sliding doors mounted oninclined tracks that provide a positive closing action and are removableto facilitate cleaning the cabinet.

The invention is specifically designed for food service cabinets, eitherrefrigerated or non-refrigerated, but is applicable to any style ofcabinet having one or more sliding doors to close an open side thereof.The cabinet may have its own bottom, or may be built on a counter thatserves as the bottom.

Various types of self-closing doors have been used previously, but theyhave not been entirely satisfactory. In one type, the doors were mountedon inclined overhead tracks and binding often occurred because ofmisalignment of the rollers or deformation of the track. The overheadmounting was unsatisfactory for the additional reason that it made itdifiicult to remove the doors when the cabinet needed cleaning. Anotherdisadvantage of the overhead mounting was that it required relativelywide clearances around the doors, and thus impaired the refrigerationefficiency in the case of refrigerated cabinets.

Another type of self-closing door previously known used springs to pullthe doors back to closed position. The springs lost their tension withage, and thus failed to provide a positive self-closing action.Furthermore, such an arrangement made door removal difficult and gaverise to lost parts which made reassembly a problem.

liding doors on food service cabinets have been hung from overheadtracks because of sanitation requirements of health authorities. It isnot obvious to mount doors on tracks secured to the bottom of a cabinet,because of the difficulty of removing crumbs that fall on the floor ofthe cabinet.

In accordance with the present invention, a pair of oppositely disposedlongitudinally inclined tracks are positioned at the bottom of the dooropening, and a door is slidably mounted on each track. The use of aninclined track at the bottom of the door, rather than overhead, takesadvantage of the weight of the door and gravity to assure positiveclosing. The inclination of the tracks causes the doors to remain intheir low position, and when either door is moved up its track, gravitywill return it to closed position as soon as it is released. An invertedchannel that is secured to the underside of the cabinet top receives theupper edge of each door to provide lateral support for 3,389,943Patented June 25, 1968 "ice the doors and is designed to be sufficientlydeep to make it easy to remove the doors for cleaning purposes.

The inclined tracks at the bottom of the door opening are removable tofacilitate cleaning the cabinet. The inclined tracks are held in placeby short channel-shaped means which may be a continuous member, or maybe longitudinally spaced clips. The relatively short clips do notinterfere with cleaning the bottom of the cabinet. If a continuousmember is used, there is provided an opening through its bottom tofacilitate cleaning the bottom of the cabinet. Thus, there is provided anovel track assembly for cabinet doors, which insures positive closingof the doors after they have been manually opened. The doors aresupported in tracks which can be removed to facilitate cleaning of theareas in which the tracks are located so that a high degree ofcleanliness can be maintained. Furthermore, the doors can be easilyremoved to permit cleaning thereof and of the inside of the cabinet. Thedoors operate on the simple gravity principle and thus there are noparts that can be lost or need be interconnected when the doors areremoved from the cabinet.

Suitable structure by means of which the above mentioned and otheradvantages of the invention are attained will be described in thefollowing specification, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings showing two preferred embodiments of the invention, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of a cabinet with closure meansembodying the invention, with portions of the cabinet broken away tofacilitate illustration thereof;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view, showing the lowertracks and the lower portion of the doors;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view, taken in theplane indicated by the line 33 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view, taken in the planeindicated by the line 4--4 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view, taken in the planeindicated by the line 5-5 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 6 is a view, similar to FIGURE 1, showing another embodiment ofthe invention;

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of a portion of thestructure of FIGURE 6;

FIGURE 8 is a fragmentary detail perspective view showing one end of thetrack holding channel of the structure of FIGURE 6;

FIGURE 9 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view, taken in theplane indicated by the line 9-9 of FIGURE 6; and

FIGURE 10 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view, taken in'theplane indicated by the line 1010 of FIGURE 6.

Referring to the drawings, a cabinet 11, comprising a top 12, a bottom13 and ends 14, has an open side adapted to be closed by a pair of doors15 and 16. The open side may be at the front or back of the cabinet, andthe opposite side of the cabinet, which is not shown, is closed byconventional structure. In the embodiment of FIG- URES 1 to 5, thecabinet is seated on a counter top which serves as the bottom of thecabinet, but the cabinet may have a separate bottom.

In accordance with the invention, there are tracks provided on wh ch thedoors are mounted and which are designed so that the door willautomatically move to the closed position due to the force of gravity.To this end, the doors are mounted on a pair of tracks 17 and 18 thatare held in place adjacent the bottom of the door opening bychannel-shaped means 19 welded to the bottom of the cabinet. Thechannel-shaped means comprises a plurality of longitudinally spacedclips. As shown in FIGURE 3, the longitudinal edges 21 of the clips 19are bent inwardly to facilitate positioning of the tracks.

The track 17 comprises a pair of sidewalls 22 and 23 connected at theirupper longitudinal edges by a top section 24. The track 18 comprisessidewalls 25 and 26 joined at their upper longitudinal edges by a topsection 27. The upper surface of each top section 24 and 27 ispreferably concave for a reason hereinafter disclosed. The tracks areinclined longitudinally in opposite directions and the sidewalls 23 and25 are welded together to provide a unitary track structure. A plate 28is welded to the outer side of the wall 22 and a similar plate 29 iswelded to the outer side of the wall 26 to reinforce the trackstructure. The plates 28 and 29 are of uniform height throughout theirlength, and extend a short distance above the uppermost portion of thetracks to provide a neat appearance for the lower portion of thecabinet.

The entire track structure, including both tracks 17 and 18, and bothplates 28 and 29 are handled as a unit when the tracks are removed topermit cleaning of the bottom of the cabinet, and when they are replacedafter such cleaning. When the structure is removed, the bottom of thecabinet is left free of all obstructions except for the clips 19. Theseclips are so small, relative to the surface to be cleaned, and arespaced so far apart that they do not interfere with cleaning the bottomof the cabinet.

The door 15 is slidably mounted on the track 17, in a manner hereinafterdescribed, and the door 16 is similarly mounted on the track 18. Theupper edges of the doors 15 and 16 are retained within inverted channels30 and 31, respectively, which are secured to the cabinet top andprovide lateral support for the upper edges of the doors. The channels30 and 31 are deep enough to retain the upper edges of the doorsthroughout their movement, and to provide sufiicient clearance so thatthe doors may be lifted from the bottom tracks for removal when thecabinet is to be cleaned.

The doors are each approximately half the width of the opening they aredesigned to close, and each comprises a pair of glass panels 32 mountedin frame members 33 with an insulating strip 34 between the edgeportions of the panels and another strip 35 sealing the joints betweenthe panels 32 and the strip 34. The doublewalled structure is desirablefor refrigerated cabinets, but it will be understood that the doors maybe of any suitable construction.

The lower edge of each frame member 33 has a channel 36 welded thereto.Each channel 36 has a shaft 37 extending transversely near each endthereof. Each shaft 37 is provided with a ball bearing 38 on which aroller 39 is rotatably mounted. The rollers 39 are the same size, and aportion of the peripheral surface of each roller depends below the loweredge of the channel 36 to enable it to roll freely on the top section ofone of the tracks. The top sections 24 and 27 of the tracks are concaveto provide a good seat for the rollers 39 and to keep them properlyaligned.

The inclination of the track 17 causes the door 15 to slide downwardlyin one direction with a positive closing action, and the inclination ofthe track 18 causes the door 16 to slide downwardly in the oppositedirection with the same force. A handle 41 is mounted on each door tofacilitate opening it against the force urging the doors to closedposition. The shafts 37 of the rollers 39 mounted on each channel 36 areat different horizontal levels, and a line drawn between the two shaftson either channel 36 is inclined from a horizontal plane at the sameangle as the track upon which the rollers 39 roll.

This mounting arrangement of the shafts 37 keeps the doors on an evenkeel relative to the bottom of the cabinet at all times.

Each of the channels 30 and 31 has a bumper 42 mounted at one endthereof to limit the opening movement of the doors. The bumpers arepreferably of rubber, but may be of plastic or any other suitablematerial. Each bumper is positioned to engage the frame member 33 of onedoor before the handle 41 of that door engages the frame member 33 ofthe other door.

In the embodiment of FIGURES 6 to 10, the structure is essentially thesame as that hereinabove described, except for the few difierenceshereinafter noted. The same reference numerals will be used to indicateidentical structure, and the description of such structure will not berepeated.

In this embodiment, the cabinet is not seated on a counter top, andtherefore is provided with a bottom 43. The handles 44 are in the formof knobs, but it is obvious that any suitable handles may be mounted oneither door.

The adjacent sidewalls 23 and 25 of the tracks 17 and 18 are weldedtogether and the Welded structure is positioned in channel-shaped meanswhich comprises a channel 45 extending the full length of the track anda reinforcing member 46. As shown in FIGURE 9, the channel 45 comprisestwo vertical walls 47 and 48 connected at their lower edges by a flatbottom section 49. The upper edge portion of the Wall 48 is bentoutwardly to form a flange 51 that is welded to the underside of thebottom 43. The bottom section 49 of the channel may be flush with thebottom of the cabinet, but preferably depends below it a distanceslightly greater than the maximum height of the tracks 17 and 18.

The reinforcing member 46 comprises a horizontal section 52 welded tothe bottom 49 of the channel and an inclined section 53 that is weldedat its upper edge to the upper edge of the wall 47, as indicated at 54,to provide a rigid member for holding the tracks 17 and 18. The tracksfit in the channel 45 and are removed therefrom when the cabinet is tobe cleaned. An opening 55 extends through the bottom plate 52 and thebottom of the channel 45 so that when the bottom of the channel is wipedor brushed, dirt which may have fallen into the channel can be moved tothe opening 55 and discharged therethrough.

The cabinet of FIGURES 6 to 10 is preferably provided with a channel 56and a reinforcing member 57 secured to the underside of the top 12adjacent the door opening to provide suitable lateral support for theupper edges of the doors 15' and 16'. The doors shown in FIGURES 9 and10 comprise a single panel, but the double walled structure of FIGURE 3may be used, if desired.

Although two preferred embodiments of the invention have been describedin considerable detail, it will be understood that the descriptionthereof is intended to be illustrative, rather than restrictive, as manydetails of structure may be modified or changed without departing fromthe spirit or scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is not desired tobe restricted to the exact structure described.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cabinet having a top, a bottom having a substantially fiat uppersurface, an open side and a pair of sliding doors for closing said openside, the improvement comprising a plurality of short, spacedlongitudinally aligned channel-shaped clips each having a hat bottomwall permanently secured to said flat upper surface adjacent said openside and a unitary track structure removably mounted on said clips forguiding the doors between open and closed positions, each of said doorshaving a channel depending from its lower edge and a pair of rollersmounted in said channel, said rollers being positioned to maintain thedoors level with respect to the bottom of the cabinet, each of saidclips having edge portions bent upwardly and inwardly from oppositelongitudinal edges of its bottom wall, said unitary track struc turecomprising two oppositely inclined tracks each having a concave uppersurface for supporting one pair of said rollers whereby the rollers ofeach of said pairs of rollers are self-aligned, said tracks beingsecured in side by side relationship with the outer sidewalls of saidtracks engaging the outer surfaces of said longitudinal edge portion ofsaid clips, said clips being spaced apart a distance suflicient topermit cleaning devices to be passed between adjacent clips, whereby theupper surface of said bottom may be cleaned easily when said trackstructure is removed.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Smith 16-106 XR Wicke 312-138Deitz 312-138 XR Keil 312138 XR Spring 312138 XR Tobiasz 312--333 XRBergstedt 312-138 XR BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner.

JAMES L. KOHNEN, Assistant Examiner.

